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Thanks to Ken Parker, Ottawa Athletic Club Racing Team 25 years old
Members of the OAC Racing Team at the RunnersWeb5K.com Race for Women, June 2006 - Photo:RunnersWeb.com
By Louise Rachlis, Ottawa Citizen
For Ottawa running coach Ken Parker, 1981 was a very good year.
It was then he ran his marathon personal best of 2:42, and he was proud of that accomplishment "for a non-marathoner body."
"I'm 6' 1" and 180 pounds. I was turning 40 that June. It was one of those things, everything came together."
Also in August 1981, he was race director of the Avon International Marathon in Ottawa. "There was no marathon in the Olympics for women then. It's my belief that Avon played the single biggest role in getting a women's marathon at the Olympics."
And it was that year the former Ottawa Lions Running Team coach started the Ottawa Athletic Club Road Racing Team.
The Racing Team has access to the facilities of the OAC which includes an indoor track, complete weight facilities, indoor and outdoor pools, wind trainers and treadmills.
"New Balance Ottawa is pleased to provide shoes and apparel to the team," says Jim Macfarlane, owner of New Balance Ottawa and Sports 4. "We will be going forward with their sponsorship in 2007." New Balance Ottawa gives team members two pairs of shoes and a full clothing package including a jacket, t's, shorts and other apparel."
Our new club was originally men and women, but I didn't want it to get too big," says Parker, who maintains the site RunnersWeb.com and is founder and former President & CEO of Sirius Consulting Group Inc. "Over time the club morphed into a women's only club, perhaps because of my background in women's only racing."
The first year he ran Boston women weren't allowed to run, and then women started to make advances in the running world. "Women needed an environment to become the best they could be, and that's the purpose of the club; to allow women to become as good as they have the time to become. All the people in the club have careers and families, but they care about their running.
He describes the team as a competitive club, not a "fitness" club, "for people who are serious about their running and want support."
Parker coaches running 5k to the marathon. There are also multi-sport athletes who come for the running segment, such as Anne-Marie Foley who recently completed Ironman Hawaii.
Because of size restrictions, the club only looks for people in the 20 minute range for 5k or are assessed to have that ability with some training.
Some of the accomplishments of the racing team include winning the US Women's 5k Road Race Club Championship for three years in a row in Albany, New York.
The team has included 16 sub 18:00 minute 5k runners including current members Liz Maguire, Barb Saville, MJ Middelkoop, Anne Marie Foley and Michelle Schuler and internationally ranked athletes such as triathletes Sharon Donnelly, two-time Canadian Champion, 1999 Pan American Games gold medal winner, and 2000 Sydney Olympian, former internationally ranked IronWoman Lynne Bermel and duathletes Donna Lockett and Sheila Kealey. Canadian Olympian Emilie Mondor, who was killed in a car accident in September of 2006, had moved to the Ottawa area to train with the club with a goal of running the marathon in the Beijing Olympics.
Last October, Liz Maguire ran the Chicago Marathon in 2:54:55 - a PB by almost five minutes - four days before turning 40 and entering the masters category.
Last summer she ran a personal best 5k of 17:33 on the track and had road PBs at four distances from 8k to the marathon. "One of the really satisfying things as a coach is to see she's still running personal best times and has room to improve," says Parker. "One of the great things about distance running is you get payback for the work you've done. I don't think she's reached her limit."
Related Websites: OACRacingTeam.com,
OttawaAthleticClub.com,
New Balance Ottawa.
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